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I love the Empire State Buillding. I think it is one of the most romantic buildings in the world. So is the Chrysler building, but I love the Empire more. Maybe I have watched too many movies. "I’ll meet you on top of the Empire State Building on Valentines Day."  It has been so fun being back in NYC even if it was only for a weekend. Poor Henry, in one weeks time he’s been in Utah, LA for 2 days, Boston, NYC now back to Boston. Eigh-yi-yi. He seems like he’s doing okay. He’s only shouting out occasionally in the car…

We came into the city on Friday night after a great day at Brimfield. My old high-school friend Patricia is always so gracious to let us stay at her place. (Thanks for the cooshy digs, Trish!) AND she had an amazing Indian meal, Naan included, waiting for us when we arrived.  She moved to NYC right before we moved out to Boston and over the years we’d take turns coming to eachothers places (although I think we crashed at her pad about 10x more than she came up to Boston). Thanks, again Trish!

If there’s one thing I never tire of in New York, it’s Central Park. I could spend days and days there (at the MET, too which is located in the Park). It is so beautiful and I love just wandering around on all the swirly paths, in and out of gardens and admiring all the wonderful old architecture. The bridges in the park are so amazing. We’ve spent lots of time here over the years…  ice skating, leef peeping, bench sitting, people watching. It never gets old. How could a place that looks  like this get old? On this particular trip to the park, we went to  Belvedere Castle and through the Shakespeare Garden (while waiting to meet friends at the Natural History Museum). Henry got a chance to run around like a wild man, so that was good. He tumbled and a nice Indian man helped him to get up and then sort of just never let him go. Stood there holding him and then turned to his friend to have him take a picture of the two of them. Hmm. Never know what you are gonna get at Central Park.

You can’t go to New York without stopping at Magnolia Bakery, right? So we did. I am a sucker for cupcakes. There was a line around the building and a nice gentleman at the door only letting a limited ammount of people in at a time to avoid over-crowding. Kind of takes away from the whole cupcake experience, but what can you do, it’s Magnolia Bakery.  They have it set up inside as a ‘self-serve’ so grab a box (if you want more than one, which we did- we HAD to take some back to Trish!) and load them up yourself.

Now, soon after I had moved from Boston, I read about another bakery that I had anxiously been wanting to try out in Chelsea:

Enter: Billy’s Bakery

It was the most darling little shop and exactly how mine would be if I were to open a bakery.  It was all vintage-y inside and they had the most fabulous wallpaper and even though it was tight on space, they had 2 lovely tables with a flower on each.

I love seeing small businesses thrive. Especially quaint and beautiful ones like this. The ambiance was wonderful and no one at the door to monitor how many people could go in at once. I’m not saying don’t go to Magnolia’s. All I am saying is, definately give Billy’s a shot. You won’t be disappointed. (And no telling about the enormous ammount of cupcakes purchased at said bakerys. What happens in New York, STAYS in New York).

It was great seeing some of my favorite old shops. If in New York, you must check out the following:

Dean & Deluca go to the location in SoHo on Prince Street and Broadway. They have a wonderful selection of food and lots of baking & cooking items as well. If you go to this location you can pop over across the street to Kates Paperie. They have the most amazing selection of paper and everything in there is just beautiful. If it’s food your after, definately head to the Upper West Side to Popover Cafe or  Sarabeths. Both have wonderful brunch/lunch menu’s and the Popovers are to die for (they come with the most wonderful strawberry butter). There is a darling little shop attached to Popovers that you must pop in to if you have time.
I must stop there. I could name places all night long. I’ll upload the photos from the weekend tomorrow. Hope everyone had a wonderful one!

EDITED:

Here are the pics from the trip.

Jill was the first to introduce us "Sylvia’s". She was in NYC recently and said we absolutely had to go next time we were in the city. So we went. It’s apparently "Home of Soul Food" and is located in Harlem. You are supposed to order fried chicken & waffles. So we did. I was first opposed to eating fried chicken before noon (we were going to go for ‘brunch’) but we were held up and didn’t get there until 12:30 which makes it all okay. Well as okay as fried chicken & waffles can be when eaten together. Chris ventured out and ate a piece of chicken AND waffle at the same time. "How is it Chris?" "I didn’t hate it." The place was actually pretty nice. We sat next to photos of Magic Johnson, Regis Philbin & Raven Simone.  Henry gobbled up the waffles and I’d have to say it was the best (and only) "soul food" I’ve ever had.

I neglected to mention one of the best places in NYC if you want to get a hot dog. When in the mood, you must go to "Gray’s Papaya" on the West Side. This place is great. Get the "Recession Special". It’s $2.75 and includes 2 hot dogs and an exotic drink of your choice. We had pina colada.